The delight of an Inter-cultural Baby Dedication service

Last Sunday – after weeks of unsettled worship services held downstairs because of furnace issues in our sanctuary – we, at Holyrood Mennonite Church, held a magical worship service to dedicate baby Amie to God in the care of our faith community. This was the culmination of inter-cultural planning that moved from imagination to learning to testing and finally, to adapting and rejoicing!    

Here is my story, from the perspective of a relatively new pastor:

The planning process began with a Saturday morning breakfast with the mother of the child and her Aunt and Uncle with whom she lives. The mother is a recent arrival from Liberia, and the church prayed for her during her pregnancy and rejoiced with her at the birth of her baby girl. Now, 4 months later, we were celebrating this gift of life.

The family made it clear that, in their culture, the pastor is singlehandedly in charge of such ceremonies. I am a white pastor in a church with a large proportion of the membership coming from Africa, mostly Liberia – mostly Kisi! The idea of shared pastoral leadership to demonstrate the inter-cultural nature of the church was not necessary, they said, and would even be confusing to the guests that would be joining us that day! The guests would be expecting the pastor to play the role solo.

And so that is what I prepared to do. And the magic of the day is that inter-culturalism happened anyway! The worship leader – a Liberian – opened first with an acknowledgement that we were starting ten minutes late! He moved on to welcome everyone with a special acknowledgement of the dignitaries in our midst – members of the Lofa County community group. Lofa County is in northern Liberia and is the traditional homeland of the Kisi people, one of 5 tribes that call this part of Liberia their homeland. We clapped for our guests! The inter-generational and inter-cultural music team lead a gathering song in the Christian worship style. The time of praise through singing included two traditional Liberian praise songs, followed by “I Saw a Tree by the Riverside” led by the children in the team, and a traditional European hymn “Child of Blessing.”  All the songs included the spontaneous contribution of the djembe – adding energy or simply offering a steady beat.

The offertory was supposed to be a violin version of “Jesus loves me,” but the child forgot her violin. So, right before the service, some of the children quickly practiced singing the song with guitar, and we offered that instead.   

This introduction lead nicely into the children’s feature on Psalm 139 and Matthew 19 – one about the wonder of our birth, the other about the love Jesus has for children. These themes were developed further in the sermon, along with the requisite reference to Jesus’ temple dedication through ceremony!

In preparing for the dedication ceremony, I had consulted with the mother who informed me she would share 3 songs as her contribution. I also checked with her uncle – the head of the household – and understood the family would be up front with the mother and the baby. Family, for me, included Uncle, Aunt, Grandma, mother, and baby. And so I planned for a brief introduction, an invitation for the family to join me up front, an opportunity for the mother to share the songs, an opportunity for the family to commit by answering a few questions, a congregational commitment, and a final blessing on the child.   

But when I invited the “family” to come on up, about 12 people stood up. Many of the guests, it turned out were “family!” They all went to the back of the sanctuary, began singing and walking up together to the front! I quickly moved my music stand an microphone stand out of the way to make room for everyone. I wasn’t sure what the 3 songs referred to and so whispered a question. The answer was: we will sing two more songs at the end! Instead of a mother’s words or song, it was all done collectively – as family! And so we proceeded with the questions – answered by all 12 family members. The congregation read its commitment; I took the child in my arms and offered a blessing, and then the Kisi women’s group sang two more songs with sase and djembe – blessings for the baby. At one point someone else took the baby so that the mother could play the sase and help lead the group! A pass-around baby comfortable and confident in many arms. When they finished their singing, everyone clapped with joy!   

While some of this was rehearsed, most of it just fell into place. It just flowed. We concluded our service, and after all the men lined up with one of them holding the baby in the middle for a formal photo-op, we all moved the joy downstairs for fellowship over traditional Liberian food and a few other potluck offerings. It was our ceremony, our service, our fellowship!  Everyone seemed to feel safe and included in our space.   

I praise God for the diversity we were able to weave together through good leadership, good natured-ness, and good nimbleness of adaptation – all done in trust and love. Amen! Praise be to God!